Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

Article V shouldn’t be that big a deal.  The Framers certainly didn’t feel it would be limited to extraordinary situations.  But, for a variety of reasons, it’s never been used, and is treated as some sort of Constitutional quirk.  The Framers may not have realized that over time they would come to be revered as a collection of brilliant and patriotic men whose like we will never see again.  People look at today’s politicians and don’t want to let them near the sacred text of the Constitution.

So Article V will be used only when there’s no other choice.  I know some history.  I know Mark Twain said 130 years ago that America had no native criminal class, except for Congress.  I know that Congress has been even more corrupt than it is today.  But in 2014 we have a perfect storm — a thoroughly corrupt Congress, a President at once comically inept and imperial, a spiraling debt that threatens us with national insolvency, and an enormous Federal Leviathan that pushes farther and farther into our lives.

So — time for Article V.

The topic is timely because it appears in 2015 and 2016 — the period in which we’ll be fighting to get to 34 — things won’t be getting any better.  God knows what the R’s will do when Obama grants executive amnesty to 5 million illegals, but it won’t be pretty.  He’ll get away with it, but the R’s will revenge themselves.  Their base will be crying for blood.  We could be looking at two years of trench warfare in Washington, the area between the White House and the Capitol a no man’s land.

This is all good, from my perspective.  Article V can save this country.  But only if people are driven to it.

The epitaph of Sulla Felix 152-78 B. C.

No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full.

Where I came from, south Anchorage in the early 80’s, Juneau Sen. Bill Ray was a bogeyman.  The first time I saw him was on the street in Juneau, when I first arrived there.  He noticed me looking at him, and didn’t like my attitude.  When the Senate Minority nominated me to represent them on Judiciary, Bill, the Chairman, refused to allow me on his committee.  I swallowed my pride, told Bill that it was all a misunderstanding, and he relented.  I was a good committee member, and eventually we got along pretty good.  He liked to tell me stories.

Especially about Mike Gravel, who he despised.  Gravel got elected Speaker back in the 60’s by promising the Rules Chair to two different guys.  Gov. Egan called everybody to his office to find out what the hell was going on.  He asked Gravel what the hell he thought he was doing, and Gravel said he had to do it — it was for the good of the state.

So Speaker Gravel and Bill are in Sitka on state business, staying at a waterfront hotel.  They’re checking out, and Gravel tells Bill to go back up to his room and get his bags.  So Bill goes up, opens the window, and throws the bags into the bay.

Bill was a very practical politician.  He told me he got a call from some Presidential campaign, asking for his help in Alaska.  Bill’s answer was short and sweet.

“What’s in it for me?”

Former Rep. Disco Ray Metcalfe fancies himself as a political gadfly these days, and writes some sort of blog.  For some reason he took a shot at me, and I want to set  the record straight.

John Lindauer was a crazy Republican from Anchorage who served one term in the House.  He moved to Chicago, married into some mob money, and convinced his in-laws they could get to the Permanent Fund if they made him Governor.  He comes back in 1994 spreading all this money around, that he claimed was his.  He buys the Republican nomination for Governor, and then it’s proven that it’s his wife’s money, that he’s been lying about it all along.  I was on the Republican Party Central Committee, and we met to figure out what to do.  I argued we should disown Lindauer and endorse Sen. Robin Taylor, who came in second.  I came up short, and after the meeting told the press, “Lindauer’s a pathological liar, but, hey, he’s our guy.”

Disco Ray says this meant I’m urging loyalty to Lindauer.

He’s a man of limited education, and thus does not appreciate sarcasm.

Robin was my best buddy in the legislature, and we did eventually get the Party to do as I asked.  He ran a valiant but losing campaign under impossible circumstances.

Disco Ray is most famous for his vote against his own amendment.  He offered some screwy amendment on the floor, and someone pointed out the obvious flaws in his thinking.  He asked the Speaker to be allowed to withdraw his amendment, and was denied.  Speaker Ben Grussendorf liked to have a little fun, especially if it was at Disco Ray’s expense.  So Disco Ray is on record, in the official annals of the Alaska House of Representatives, as joining his colleagues in a unanimous vote against his own amendment.

He’s better off in the gadfly business.

That’s what it will take in Wyoming.  We got a lot of educatin’ to do back there.  NFIB’s man in Wyoming, Tony Gagliardi, says Sen.  Charlie Scott is our target sponsor.  No big Birch/Eagle Forum problem.  We’ll have a session with Natelson, myself, and maybe Bill Fruth sometime around 1-21-15, a week after the session opens.  I have been a little too sanguine about our prospects there, but as long as they have open minds — minds not infected with the dreaded Birch/Eagle virus — we should convince them.  The counter arguments are so weak — lame, really.

Excellent news in the Article V Caucus newsletter, produced by Stu McPhail.  There’s a new group in Texas pushing term limits through Article V —  americansforcongressionalreform.org, headed by Bryan Anderson.  They also want an amendment that would prohibit Congress from passing any law that didn’t also apply to Congress.  A fairly impressive list of guys.  I’ll be talking to them.  I introduced their Reso in the Alaska House in 1989.  Aaron Cook of termlimitconvention.org will be getting ahold of them Monday so they can team up.

Good report from Dave and Bill on the Liberty Congress.  Aglialoro will probably give us something in the mid five figures.  We need all we can get.  Bill is now “The Closer”, having made an irrefutable closing pitch.  18 or 20 big conservative/libertarian groups in attendance.  They’ve all got their own agendas, but now they at least know we exist, and are generally supportive.

The Task Force is sponsoring a breakfast on 12-6, the Saturday after ALEC.  Hopefully a good, receptive crowd.

Good news out of West Virginia, via Scott.  Looking good.

Been thinking about my old pal Rick Halford back in Alaska.  He’s a bit of an odd duck.  When I first get down to Juneau we hit it off, and pretty soon we were strategizing together.  One night he tells me this delicious tidbit of gossip about something.  Kind of amazing, you’d never think of it.  And he swears me to secrecy.

I don’t talk.  Never have, never will.  It’s a sign of weakness, a way of drawing attention to yourself as somebody “in the know.”  Snitches get stiches where I come from.

So a couple weeks go by, and I never hear a word, from anyone, about Rick’s secret info.  Then I realize it was bullshit.  He made it up, and told it to me to test my ability to keep my mouth shut.

Rick’s back in politics to kill the Pebble Dam.  I’ve got a stock tip for you.  Find out the stocks which are invested in that mine.

And short ’em.

In Time he says he’s going to be out campaigning for our resolution.  In addition, Dave says retiring Sen. Coburn should be endorsing our cause in the next few weeks.  At the Liberty Congress in Philly Dave asked when we would start to get some media.  Dick Morris (yeah, that one) said it would happen when Republican Presidential candidates started talking about in the debates.  I disagree.  We don’t have to wait for the debates.

You can bet the ranch that all the potential candidates are watching each other like hawks.  Kasich’s statement, in Time, puts him out front on this issue — and it’s a good one, as anyone with a room temperature IQ can see.  My bet is that before Kasich is allowed to take this issue, run with it, and make it his own, other candidates will weigh in.  It’s too good an idea to let him have to himself.

Thus far, the NFIB and ALEC have been our pillars of support.  Having them with us makes this doable.  Dave set up a cc with them this morning — Gary Selvy, Steve Woods, and Daniel Markels of NFIB, and Michael Bowman of ALEC.  I’ll be working mainly with Daniel, Western States Director.  He’s taken the initiative and is setting up cc’s with his state reps and a few others in AZ, ID, SD, ND, MT, UT and WY.  This is exactly what needs to be done, now.  I’ve got a strong ally, which helps.

My old buddy Rick Halford has done it again.  In 1990 he masterminded the successful third party candidacy of Wally Hickel for Governor of Alaska.  The Republican candidate was Arliss Sturgulewski, a RINO.  Now that he’s an old pro, he’s proven he’s still got it (he’s 70).  He’s got a hard on for Republican Governor Sean Parnell.  Probably over the Pebble Mine, which Rick vehemently opposes (he’s evolved, politically).  So he decides he wants Bill Walker, an independent, to be Governor.  He gets the Democrat to drop out, has Walker team up with the Democratic Lt. Gov., a well respected Native, and goes one to one with Parnell and beats him.  Today Walker announced that Rick and a Native woman from Bethel will head his transition team.

Rick was already in the legislature four years when I got elected in 1982.  He was my mentor for a while.  An amazing guy, one of the smartest people I’ve ever known.  Politics cost him his first marriage, to Connie, who everybody liked.  Had three daughters.  Then he married a staffer in Juneau, a part Native gal from Dillingham.  When he quit the legislature he moved out there, and now has three sons.  I talk to him every couple years.  He seems really happy, more so than I’ve ever seen.

He’s got something to smile about tonight.